Automaker is the latest to reverse course on Mexico

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Hyundai has joined several other automakers, including Ford, GM, and FCA, in announcing U.S. plant investments to head off criticism from President-elect Donald Trump. Hyundai Motor Group, the parent company for both the Hyundai and Kia brands, says it will increase its investments in the U.S. by 50 percent to $3.1 billion over the next five years, Reuters reports.

Trump has yet to turn his attention to Hyundai-Kia, which has a new plant in Nuevo Leon, Mexico, that just began building cars. But the company says the decision wasn’t made due to pressure from the President-elect. Mexico specializes in building small cars, and that was the plan for this plant up until the recent slowdown in small car sales. Consumer tastes have shifted toward larger vehicles like crossovers and trucks, categories in which Hyundai is weaker, likely contributing to the automaker seeing less sales growth in 2016 than it enjoyed in previous years. Last month, Hyundai Motor America CEO Dave Zuchowski was fired for missing sales targets. When it opened, the Mexico plant was projected to build 400,000 vehicles a year, but today a spokesman said that figure was subject to change.

The $3.1 billion investment will go toward retooling existing factories in the U.S. and will also support research for self-driving cars and other future technologies. Hyundai Motor Group president Chung Jin-haeng said the company is considering a new factory in the U.S. to build high-margin, high-demand vehicles like SUVs and premium cars from its Genesis brand. The decision hinges on whether demand for Hyundai-Kia cars improves under the incoming Trump administration.

Though dodging a tweet barrage from Trump wasn’t the main reason behind the investment, that possibility was likely on the automaker’s mind. Reuters reports Hyundai and Kia have among the lowest ratios of cars built in the U.S. to cars sold here. Trump has threatened a border tax of up to 35 percent on cars imported from Mexico.